Stories from a real life cowpuncher that will give you a smile and a glimpse of God.

I Love “Band Directors”

by Kevin on November 16, 2010

Sometimes we can sure be stupid. We can take things and make them complicated and blow them way out of proportion. It seems like everyday we misinterpret something that is great and make it bad. I did this a few days ago and I’m gonna go out on a limb and bear my idiocy to the world.

I was gettin’ ready to speak at the Return to Community event in my hometown. I was standing on the same stage where I had performed One Act Play twenty years before. It was fantastic to be back in my hometown and doin’ God’s work.

I was gonna speak for a few minutes and then the our church band was gonna perform a few songs. While we were standing back stage waiting to go on, a very nice young lady kept quizzin’ us about our songs. The band that had played before us had the words projected up onto a big screen so I thought they had done the same for us.

She asked if the songs were fast or slow and I told her both. My drummer goes fast and I play the bass and usually go too slow. She didn’t know what to say to that and I smiled politely and told her that I was just joking. I told her that two of our songs were fast and two were slow. She then wanted to know the order and Thomas, my lead singer, told her, but you could see the confusion in his eyes as to why that was so important. He told her that there wouldn’t be any word projection because we didn’t get the words to them in time. She smiled and said she was excited to hear us play.

Fast forward and I am just picking up my bass. I have given my rousing rendition of what we can learn about community from John Wayne’s movie “The Cowboys”. Preach what you know, right? I put my bass strap over my head and I am already worried about the third song. I take a deep breath and remind myself that God is with me and I am doin’ it for Him.

“I Saw the Light” by Hank Williams starts and I wait for the last line of the first verse to come in.

We all sing in perfect harmony, “Praise the Lord, I saw the light.”

Small bass run leads up to the chorus. Drums come in. You can feel the excitement. My blood is pumpin’ now. And…..

There is a lady up on stage and she is “band directing” us.

Why in the world would a professional cowboy church band need a complete stranger to keep time for us? I didn’t understand what all that arm flappin’ meant after playin’ the drums for seven years in high school and it is not gonna make any sense to me now.

I haven’t seen anyone band direct at church except for the one that I grew up in. Mrs. Tucker was real good at it, but when Norman filled in, I thought he was gonna tear something up. Maybe this whole band directing obsession is just a Big Lake thing.

On the way home, I mentioned this to the other guys. I asked them if they had seen it and they had. Stanley said that he even thought the same thing I did for a split second. It only took a heartbeat for both us to realize on stage that the lady wasn’t band directing us, she was “signing” our lyrics for the hearing impaired. All those questions made perfect sense now.

What a great way to spread the gospel!!! I’ve never been around people that were deaf or been to a church where there was anyone that could sign. God bless all of ya’ll that donate your time and God given talent to help people understand what is being spoken about God.

But don’t we misunderstand things all the time? We take someone’s kind words and look for a motive behind them. We hear the cry of a baby and think they are intentionally trying to annoy us. We look at someone that walks in the church and automatically think “hypocrite” because of their past. We even look at God sometimes and get mad because it seems like he is “band directing” our life when in fact he is just throwing his arms up and celebrating the fact that we have come to him at all.

There is joy and happiness all around us. Take the time today to look around and find it. If you find someone that is lending their ears to the deaf, give them a hug from a cowboy preacher and tell ’em thanks for me.

Kevin, that is too funny! The lady’s name is Blanca Wilkins, and she is an awesome lady. I sent her the link. I think she will get a big kick out of that. And next year, I guess we better communicate some things a little better! But then you wouldn’t have had that awesome story!

Kevin

She is quite a lady, there’s no doubt about that. Carla, ya’ll don’t need to do anything different. It was great! It wasn’t your fault you had a cowboy preacher in the joint that needs things spelled out to him r….e…..a…..l s…..l…..o……w!

Carla Helms

Thanks, Kevin! Y’all were such a blessing to us!

Greg Box

Amen Cowboy! Wow – Now that’s what I call God Time-Awesome!

She would sure enough get a big hug from me that’s for sure, God’s Love and Grace Shines Bright For All Involved! Great Story Thank You!